Ridley Pearson

Sarah Crowder

Ridley Pearson is a New York Times best-selling author of more than 50 novels, nearly equally divided between crime/suspense and middle-grade adventure novels. His work has been published in two dozen languages, and has been adapted by network television and for the Broadway stage. His most recent book is "Lock and Key: The Initiation."

Ridley was awarded The Raymond Chandler Fulbright fellowship in detective fiction from Oxford University in 1990, was an Edgar Award nominee, was admitted to the Missouri Writer Hall of Fame in 2013. His novels have won numerous state reading awards. "Peter and the Starcatchers" set a Guinness World Record for most readers reading the same novel at the same time.

His research has spanned the globe and included everything from the engine room of a cruise liner, the Kenya bush, a nighttime visit to Walt Disney World’s It’s A Small World, to a locked-room visit with inmates at a prison for the criminally insane. The real life aftereffects of this research have at various times helped authorities solve a trio of homicides and briefly made Ridley a silent contributor to an FBI task force charged with the manhunt for the Washington D.C. sniper.

“Will leave you dying to know more.” —Rick Riordan, author of the #1 bestselling Percy Jackson series The New York Times bestselling author of the Peter and the Starcatcher and Kingdom Keepers series, Ridley Pearson, brings us the second riveting tale in the Lock and Key trilogy. This bravely reimagined origin story of the rivalry of literature’s most famous enemies—Sherlock Holmes and James Moriarty—is told from the perspective of James’s observant little sister, Moira. At the thrilling conclusion to book one, we left off with James and Moira’s father dying horribly and unexpectedly. Now the search is on to find out what really happened to their father. Did he fall or was he pushed? Sherlock, James, and Moira reluctantly partner up, trusting no one, not even each other, as they uncover a secret sect, a rare jewel, and a sordid history. Blood is spilled, trusts broken, and friendships lost in this story of how one simple mistake cost Father his life and James his heart, and sent the Moriartys spiraling ever downward. It’s a highly original and satisfying take on the Sherlock Holmes series as only master of suspense Ridley Pearson could envision. As Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson series, says, “This tale will change the way you see Sherlock Holmes and leave you dying to know more.”More/less